Imagination + MemoryTo what extent is imagination drawn from other ways of knowing?

Journals

Journal #1

Kait

Group: Diego, Leo, Muno

Badge Leader: Muno

Feb 27

WOK Badge: Imagination

Today my group came up with out idea for our presentation. We are going to explore the different types of imagination, specifically realistic and creativity. We are going to ask a range of people to draw the first thing that comes to mind when they think of the world. We are going to ask, students, teachers, and a little kid. When we get all the drawing, we will categorize them in the types of imagination. Then we will explain the specific traits of each type. At the end we will connect imagination to memory. We are going to do the majority of our presentation through an animation that Muno is going to make. We plan to save time after the animation to summarize our findings.

EE: What is the role of imagination in producing knowledge about a real world?

The test subjects

- An art teacher- Ms. Vanpelt

- Diego

- A science teacher - Dr Hennessy

- A little kid- Mr. Newman’s daughter

- History teacher - Ms Richardson

- Caton

EE: To what extent does Imagination rely on other ways of knowing?

Journal #2

Feb 28

My groups main aims for the presentation is to explain realistic and creative imagination, explain the limits of imaginations, and then relate it to memory. As a group, we have concluded that imagination is based off of memory, not entirely, but for the most part. Our imaginations include things that we preserve from the real world. For example, I can imagine a dog flying around in space wearing a pair of gloves on his ears, but that is still based on my memory. I know what a dog, space, and gloves look like, but I have now combine them to make something new. My imagination is the one combining them, and my memory is how I know what the objects should look like.

Journal #3- Reflections

March 1

My group presented our project today. Muno prepared an animation of our experiment, and then we discussed our results afterwards. We also related imagination to memory, which sent us down a rabbit hole of how they are connected. My group and I believe that imagination is based off of memory, but the class had a different opinion. I think we could all agree that in most cases imagination is based off of memory, but there are a few cases where imagination is all it's own. A really interesting example to think about is someone who is blind. What do they imagine in their minds? What do they see? The only sense they have that can help them visualize things, is their sense of touch. The can physically feel the shape of an object, but cannot see what it looks like. Can their minds imagine precisely what the object looks like? Do they imagine things in color? There are so many aspects to explore.

If I were to change anything about the project, it would be to maybe change the activity that we did. Making various people draw the world did;t end up supporting any of our claims. The results were not diverse enough to explain how people's imagination are different. If we did the experiment again, we might ask the participants to draw something more abstract, like love, or happiness. There is more room for imagination with those topics.